A Canadian non-governmental organization’s “brave” initiative to publish a report detailing shortcomings in its projects is a step in the right direction and would hopefully jump-start a “more grown-up” dialogue about NGOs and their work, Madeleine Bunting of the Guardian says.
Engineers Without Borders’ “failure report,” which includes accounts by project officers about the mistakes they committed in activities they oversaw, suggests that NGOs can learn from their own failures, Bunting writes. The report comes with a call for other NGOs to also share their failures.
Bunting acknowledges that the move is risky as it gives aid skeptics material to fuel their anti-aid argument. But she adds that it appears to be a risk worth taking.
“A more grown-up conversation about NGOs and their work is overdue,” Bunting argues in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog.
